Shot Of The Year

During our camera meeting before the first game of the Cardinals/Nationals series I said to camera 5 (Right Field corner) that his only responsibility was to "show me something I have never seen before." Despite the fact that the Cardinals were destroyed tonight by the score of 10 - 0, this operator captured a truly remarkable shot. It was the shot of a father explaining the game to his young son. I stayed on this fantastic picture for over twenty seconds because it was so wonderful. The Washington Nationals should use this powerful, powerful shot on a TV commercial. They would sell thousands and thousands of tickets. Nice going camera 5, you captured the shot of the year!

Great Great Great Great

Yesterday I wrote about a bad apple who affected a telecast. Tonight I write about a great, great TV crew with a bunch of talented TV techs. This DC area crew is absolutely one of the best crews in all of baseball. The EIC's of our truck worked their asses off in putting out many fires until we finally went to air. We didn't even have any audio leaving the truck until 6:10 PM - 20 minutes before we went to air. I salute each and every member of this crew. This road TV crew makes us feel as if we are televising at home!! In DC the crew is great, the truck is great, the scenics are great, and the ballpark is great. I can't wait for tomorrow's game/telecast.

One Bad Apple

There were three TV feeds going out of PNC Park for the Cardinals/Pirates game tonight. The Pirates home feed, our visiting feed, and a Wednesday Night ESPN feed. After the game/telecast tonight (which the Pirates won 5 - 0), I was talking to a member of one of the other feeds who I have known for a long time. He was telling me about a member of their crew who was being "a total pain in the ass" the whole day. My friend swore that this attitude affected the whole telecast. "This was a hard show to do" he told me. "This crew member disrupted the whole show". Anyone with any experience in live television sports has been in this situation. One person can disrupt the whole show. As I have stated in this blog before - if you don't enjoy this wonderful business do something else. Do yourself and everyone else on the crew a favor - leave.

Taking Chances

The Pirates had a runner on 2nd base with two outs in the bottom of the 3rd inning. I decided to take a chance. I told camera 1 (mid 1st) to show me home plate tight and then I had him pull back to a fairly tight shot of the plate. I told the operator "If there is a collision at the plate, this is where I want you. Beat the throw and frame that shot." Wouldn't you know it, the next pitch the batter singled to right field and there was a violent collision at home plate. The Cardinals' star catcher was shaken up on the play and was removed from the game. Our replay sequence of the play showed exactly how violent that collision was and how unbelievable it was that the catcher held on to the ball. Taking chances during a game requires a great degree of luck. Well, tonight we were very lucky. The viewers will certainly remember the Cardinals catcher getting smoked at home plate. They will hardly remember that the Cardinals got smoked by the Pirates 9 - 0.

Pleasant Surprise

I was sitting in the truck here in Pittsburgh this afternoon about 2:45 when I experienced a pleasant surprise. One of my camera operators was actually practicing! I often see our Busch Stadium camera operators practicing but this is a rare occurrence on road game/telecasts. I praised the operator and thanked him and throughout the telecast he did a great job. Apart from the :30 minute rain delay during the game, this 4 - 3 Cardinals victory was a nice clean show. After my pleasant surprise earlier in the day, this successful telecast did not surprise me at all.

Mush

As I sit in my hotel room here in Pittsburgh, I find it hard to understand why today's Cardinals/Reds game wiped me out. The Cardinals won the game 8 - 2 in 3:14. There was really nothing stressful about this ordinary game and yet my brain is mush. We lost camera 3 (mid 1st) for the fourth inning and I was down to only 2 of my own cameras but that has happened before and we didn't miss a beat. I certainly don't feel as brain dead as I did after our 19 inning, 6:07 game of a week ago but I'm close. Big 3-game series with the Pirates starts tomorrow and I can't wait. Let's hope the old brain recovers.

Prophetic

The Cardinals beat the Reds tonight 8 - 5 with a 6-run 6th inning. The Redbirds are now 6 games behind the 1st place Reds and still lead in the race for the 2nd wild card team by 2 games over the Dodgers and the Pirates. This is a very meaningful series both both clubs. Games that "mean something" give a little rush to the TV crew as well. The adrenalin kicks in throughout the game/telecast. This 3:35 game was a fun game to televise. The Reds led 4 - 1 and 5 - 2 before the Cardinals scored 6 in the 6th to win the game. As the top of the 6th inning began, our Producer said "The Cardinals are going to win this game." As we walked back to the hotel here in Cincinnati after the game he said "I just had a feeling they were going to win this thing." He was right. Off tomorrow - Cards on FOX. I can't wait for sunday. Maybe I'll get a prediction from our Producer about sunday's contest.